Possible accident at South Ukrainian NPP: IAEA comments on the situation
26 July 2024 23:53
The IAEA has confirmed that a power unit at the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant (SUNPP) was shut down last week. This was reported by
According to the IAEA team, last week, the second power unit was temporarily shut down due to the tripping of electrical protections due to a problem with a transformer in an open distribution point located outside the nuclear power plant site. The short circuit damaged the ceramic insulator, which led to an oil leak that caught fire.
After the electrical connection was restored, the reactor was restarted and began feeding electricity to the grid in about 17 hours, reaching full capacity a little over 24 hours after the shutdown.
In addition, one of the three reactor units at PSP completed scheduled maintenance and fuel refuelling and was successfully restarted. The planned outage at the other unit is nearing completion.
It should be noted that on 18 July, Ukrenergo reported equipment breakdowns at two power facilities, which caused a significant shortage in the power system.
On the same day, Oleksandr Kharchenko, director of the Energy Research Centre, wrote that three current transformers had burned down at the South Ukrainian NPP in three days. The reason was the heat.
The Ministry of Energy denied the accident and said that this was the way the Russian IPSO works. However, when the situation seemed to be resolved, MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak returned to the topic, claiming that the Energy Minister had allegedly concealed information about the “emergency situation at the South Ukrainian NPP”.
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